


an empress' softness

by ConvenientAlias



Category: Marco Polo (TV)
Genre: Episode Tag, Episode Tag: Measure Against the Linchpin, Extremely Dubious Consent, F/F, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Power Imbalance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-26 16:16:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15666768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConvenientAlias/pseuds/ConvenientAlias
Summary: Chabi did something hard. Now she wants to do something kind. She goes to visit Mei Lin.





	an empress' softness

Kokachin did not show resentment, after.

She did not show resentment when Chabi handed her a pipe and told her she would remain sober through the marriage ceremony. She did not show resentment when Chabi forced evidence of her false virginity. And she did not show resentment after Chabi brought a stable boy into her room and forced them to have sex.

No. She continued to agree with everything Chabi said, and speak to her only in the quietest, most submissive voice, and smile a hesitant, pearly smile.

She did not excoriate Chabi, but Chabi did that for herself.

_“When was the last time you did something hard?”_ her husband asked her. She didn’t answer at the time, and she didn’t tell him of this deed now. The nature of an emperor’s job was to show one’s brutality in public so that all would fear you. The nature of an empress’ job was to hide the ugly parts away, hide them so well that your husband thought you soft. But she was not soft. She was steel. And she was tired.

She wanted to be soft, though, sometimes. She wanted to be kind. Maybe that was what drew her to the bedroom of Mei Lin.

“How are you doing?”

“I am well.” Mei Lin never complained. She was like Kokachin that way. They were both too well trained to complain.

“And how does Ahmad treat you?”

“He treats me as a prisoner. As he should.”

Mei Lin was eyeing Chabi cautiously. She had always been a little afraid of Chabi, but this line of questioning seemed to bother her more. Maybe she supposed Chabi had come to scold her for sleeping with Ahmad—which had disturbed her when she first learned of it, it was true, but she would not blame Ahmad’s taste in whores on Mei Lin. Or maybe… “I know that you have slept with my husband.”

Mei Lin’s face was blank. Slowly, she folded herself onto her knees, then leaned forward into a position of prostration. “You are correct,” she said. “I did.”

She did not apologize. Maybe she realized they were past apologies.

“My husband comes to you because he wants to rebel against me,” Chabi said. “I do not blame you for that.” It was her own fault. “But you should not think you are gaining favor with him.”

“I do not.”

“You may rise.”

Mei Lin rose.

She was not as beautiful as she had been as a whore, Chabi thought. Her skin was rougher as a result of travel and lack of care. Her hair was not as neat. And the beige robes she was wearing would not have been her fare as a whore, even to sleep in.

Mei Lin was still frozen, and Chabi realized she had been staring. She patted the bed. “Sit. I have come to bring news of your daughter.” That was what this was for after all. She’d come because she had wanted to be kind to someone she had power over, to prove she had still had the ability. She’d once spared Mei Lin’s life—that had been both kind and hard. Mei Lin’s survival was a proof of her virtue, in a way.

( _Or_ , a voice whispered, a proof of your weakness— _you  were too fond of her, too stupidly fond of her, and you could not bear to have her killed_ …)

“She is doing well,” Chabi said. “She is learning to play the lute. All the court admires her.”

“Admires her,” Mei Lin said. “In what way?”

“They think she is a lovely young lady. In what other way might they?” Chabi frowned.

Mei Lin smiled (it was a brief twitch of her face, gone in an instant) and said, “I am glad to hear she is admired, then.”

“She seems to look up to Ahmad.”

“As well she should. He is a prince, after all.”

“Yes. She is a fine addition to our court. You may be proud.”

What now? Did she say that Ling Ling still spoke of Mei Lin, wanted to see her? No. That would be cruel, Chabi reminded herself, to taunt Mei Lin with what she could not have. Today she was being kind.

But what else did she have to say to Mei Lin? Conversation between them had expired quickly, but she did not want to leave. Mei Lin’s presence, for all her stiffness, was somehow comforting. Maybe because she knew Chabi’s hardness and her softness both. There were few people who knew Chabi like that, and one of them was currently angry with her because she had not wanted him to kill a child.

She spoke without deliberating. “Did you know my husband would kill the boy?”

“Zhao Xian?”

“Answer my question.”

“Yes.”

She spoke without hesitation. That certain, then?

Then she had known Kublai better than Chabi herself.

Chabi narrowed her eyes. “And yet you still fetched him back here. You brought a child here to be killed.”

“I am the Khan’s obedient servant.”

“He was your emperor. He was a child.”

“And I am a mother?” Mei Lin said. She raised her eyebrows. “Is that what you wanted to say? I am a mother, yes. Then you understand why I did this.”

To save Ling Ling, she had brought a boy to his death, knowingly. She had done something hard, as Kublai might see it. But Chabi disagreed. It was easy, acting only to protect the people one cared about. Easy to protect a husband, a lover, a child. Simple, to let the needs of a nation go in order to save one girl. Simple and weak.

Chabi had not protected the girl entrusted to her as a daughter. She had had the girl raped. For the sake of the nation, she would do it again.

Yes, Mei Lin was weak. Chabi wished she could afford to be so weak. She put her hands on Mei Lin’s shoulders. “You are innocent,” she said.

Mei Lin’s eyes widened. “My lady?”

Chabi ran a hand through Mei Lin’s hair. “So innocent,” she repeated. “Like a child.”

Mei Lin laughed, awkwardly. “My lady, I do not…”

Chabi drew the robes off Mei Lin’s shoulders, and Mei Lin stilled. She held still as Chabi rubbed circles into her back and over her breasts, even though Chabi could feel her heartbeat racing when her hand pressed down over her chest. She held still until Chabi kissed her on the lips, and then she kissed back, hot and controlled at the same time. Her technique had not changed in the months since they last came together this way, and Chabi felt a little nostalgic. But the last time they were together she had thought them to be a queen and a girl desperate to please, and this time she knew Mei Lin better, knew her depths and her dangers.

It was different, and that was good. Chabi needed different tonight.

Mei Lin would have worshipped Chabi with tongue and hands, but Chabi forced her on her back. That wasn’t what she needed right now. She didn’t want to receive, she wanted to take. She set her tongue on Mei Lin’s belly and tasted her skin; then, further down, her musk. She had rarely serviced anyone like this—it was below the dignity of a queen and even back before she was queen it had been beneath the dignity of a princess. But she didn’t want to be a queen, didn’t want to be a ruler. Not tonight. She wanted to serve. She wanted to give Mei Lin pleasure, make Mei Lin feel good, happy. Fix her, somehow. Maybe now the girl desperate to please was Chabi.

“Do you like this?” she asked Mei Lin.

“Yes, my lady.”

“Then why do you lie so still and quiet?” So far, Mei Lin had done little but pant.

“Men usually prefer it so.”

“I do not.” Chabi crawled forward over Mei Lin, straddling her belly, so they could meet eyes. She tilted Mei Lin’s chin up, and looked into her eyes. They were bright. “I want your honesty. If you like it, show me.”

“Yes. I will do better.”

Chabi returned to her ministrations. Now Mei Lin moaned. She writhed a little, too, but when Chabi pushed her legs down, they remained still when she let go. Even in release, she was controlled.

When Chabi was done, she slipped Mei Lin’s robe back on and tied it closed. She felt an odd impulse to brush Mei Lin’s hair. Soft. Mei Lin was soft. But she finished fastening the robe, and the moment passed. And Mei Lin eyed her, and again Chabi was short on words.

“I will give you more news of Ling Ling soon,” she offered.

Mei Lin said, “That would be kind, my lady.”

“Yes,” Chabi said. “You may be grateful.” She wiped her hands off on the blanket, then dropped it. “Well, I will be leaving.”

“I hope my lady sleeps well.”

“Thank you.”

She left with a feeling of distinct satisfaction, though touched with melancholy. Yes, she was hard, but she was not like her husband, who would use Mei Lin like an object without consideration for her pleasure. And she was not cruel to everyone. She could be kind.

Mei Lin would be her witness in that.

**Author's Note:**

> After watching Measure Against the Linchpin, I am distinctly disturbed. Chabi's going down a dark path, it seems. Anyway, Season Two is lacking in dysfunctional Chabi/Mei Lin so here are my feels.  
> Comments would be appreciated. Or come talk to me on tumblr. (either way, pls no spoilers past "Let God's Work Begin", that's where I'm at currently.)


End file.
